Starting Again!

Wow, the time has flown! Since our front yard experiment in Portland, we've moved twice. When we left the urban area, our vines were making it, doing pretty well and even produced fruit in year 1. But we sold the house before we could make any wine. Darn!

Now, 9 (gulp) years later, we've moved to Southern Oregon, and we're doing it again, this time in our tiered back yard. Clark has ordered the wines and will be putting in a trellis system if it ever warms up! Check back to see our progress.

This time, there WILL be wine!

Here's a preview of the new vineyard site. That's Rootie. He loves the snow.

We have growth!

Wow--five of the seven vines have leaves and are off and growing. The winner is the lone Syrah that is growing like gangbusters.

Not too happy with the Zinfandel. Two of the vines look like they won't make it. But we have high hopes that they'll come through for us. Luckily My Personal Vineyard, where we bought the vines guarantees their vines (if you do everything right--which we did). But, again, we're keeping our fingers crossed that these two Zins will start to bud.

We had some crazy weather this week--gusty winds and rain. And, it's cool again this weekend. But, our little vines are hanging in there and thriving (well, except for the two duds...).

On another note, our tomatoes and tomatillos are going OFF! We're going to have a great harvest. Thanks to Clark and his excellent way with compost :)

Ahh. Monday, and back to my real job. Another beautiful day here in the NW and i'm stuck here at work. Tomarrow i'll plant Cab Franc and more Zin(primativo). Then it's off to school for this inexperienced wine grower. There are alot of workshops for wine enthusiasts here in the Portland area. Good for me. Have a winederful day!

Day 2...And I'm getting excited about the wine. Yes, I'm an optimist. Yes, I'm already counting on all of those lovely bunches of grapes. Yes, I can already taste that peppery, deep, yummy syrah-like Zin!

It's only Day 2? I know that Clark's green thumb, not to mention his taste for vine, will prevail. Good things--awesome wine (or at least awesome learnings) to follow.

Day 2: Judgement Day

So, I followed the instructions that came with the vines, and hopefully they'll grow. We planted 7 vines in total, a beautiful Syrah (420a), 4 Primitovos and 2 Cab Francs. Used the white plastic sleeves ordered with wine.

It's May 16th, the first warm day in Portland--the perfect time to start my winery.

So, now we wait and see how the vines produce. Looking forward to green and shoots and FRUIT.

I know that traditionnally Pinots are grown in this area, but we wanted to go out on a limb and grow grapes not so friendly to this area (i.e.: Zin, Cab, Syrah). But, we are hoping for a small, and firm texture to this wine. Deep flavors--that is the goal.

This montage will consist of 75% Zinfandel, 20% Cabernet Franc and 5% Syrah. We know this because this is what we planted TODAY.

We are hoping for the first release by 2014. We hope you will be following us through this journey!

Day 1

This is an urban experiment in viticulture in Portland, Oregon. Today I laid the trellis down, vines are waiting (ordered from MyPersonalVineyard.com) and the adventure is about to begin!

We'll share our story of planting a small (but mighty) vineyard in our frontyard in downtown Portland, OR. I'll be posting photos so that you can see how we progress.

If we can do this, anyone (with sun, soil and some luck) can do it, too.